In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of nectarine tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Pearlicious I’.
The present variety was hybridized by me in 2004 as a first generation cross using ‘Candy Pearl’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 14,249) nectarine as the selected seed parent and ‘Spring princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 17,750) peach as the selected pollen parent. The fruit of this cross was gathered in the spring of 2004, and the seeds were removed from the fruit, germinated, stratified, and grown as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse. Upon reaching dormancy that winter, the seedlings were transplanted as a group to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the fruit evaluation season of 2007 I selected the present variety as a single tree from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of nectarine tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is similar to its seed parent, ‘Candy Pearl’ nectarine by producing nectarines that are mostly red in skin color, white in flesh color, clingstone in type, mostly sub-acidic and sweet in flavor, firm in texture, and large in size, but is distinguished therefrom by requiring much less dormant chilling, by blooming earlier, and by producing fruit that is more symmetrical in shape and that matures about thirty days earlier.
The present variety is similar to its pollen parent, ‘Spring Princess’ peach by requiring a low amount of dormant chilling, by blooming in the early season, and by producing fruit that is clingstone in type and large in size, but is quite distinguished therefrom by being a white flesh nectarine instead of a yellow flesh peach.
The present variety is most similar to ‘May Pearl’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 17,254) nectarine by producing nectarines that are white in flesh color, clingstone in type, firm in texture, and mostly sub-acidic in flavor, but is distinguished therefrom by requiring slightly less chilling hours, by having reniform instead of globose leaf glands, and by producing fruit that is larger in size, that is a fuller red in skin color, and that matures about ten days later.